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VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY 

LECTURE BY 

SWAMI ABHEDANANDA 



ON 



Does the Soul Exist after Death? 



DELIVERED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE VEDANTA SOCIETY, 

63147 



AT TUXEDO HALL, NEW YORK, SUNDAY, 
DECEMBER 3d, I9OO 



Published by the Vedanta Society 



NEW YORK j 



l-i&MLf y of Congre«J 

"•wo Copies Receded 
OCT 19 1900 

Copyright entry 

strom copy. 



0*^«werwf to 



OSOt* DIVISION, 

NOV 33 1900 



Copyright, 1900, by Swami Abhedananda, new york 



Price 10 Cents 

4* 



THE MOTHERHOOD OF GOD 

LECTURE BY 

SWAMI ABHEDANANDA 

TUXEDO HALL 

NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 12, 1899 

PRICE JO CENTS 

The lecture by the Swami Abhedananda on "The Mother- 
hood of God" is serious, logical, awakening, and one can 
hardly help feeling that only use and wont prevent us from 
recognizing that the phrase, "The Fatherhood of God/' is 
really assailable. * * * * * Says Swami Abhedananda, 
"We live and move and have our existence in that Divine 
Mother." At present we are, as a rule, not much beyond 
the old Israelitish notion of Jehovah ; and here we find this 
enlightened Indian's teaching specially rational and whole- 
some. The Hebrew religion gave us the picture of a Jeho- 
vah, stern, arbitrary, and exacting as an Eastern autocrat. 
Says the Swami, "The same Jehovah, when considered as the 
Father of the universe by Jesus and His followers, did not 
lose this extra-cosmic nature. Even to-day the majority of 
the Christians cannot go beyond this idea of an extra-cosmic 
God." And that is where we are to-day for the most part. 
What if the profound Eastern idea of the Motherhood of 
God, allied to our already fruitful idea of the immanent (in- 
stead of transcendent) God, should turn out to be the prac- 
tical emancipation of the Western mind, delivering it from 
the anthropomorphic images that cluster about this "extra- 
cosmic" God, and introducing it to a thought of God which 
will bring Him absolutely near? ***** We have 
long needed a little more of this "superstition" and senti- 
ment in "this happy English isle." Let us be hospitable to 
all who bring out from the treasury "things new and old." 
the "pearl of great price." Especially let us be hospitable 
to the interesting thinkers who increasingly remind us of 
the ancient proverb that wisdom comes from the East. — 
Extracts [row. the leading editorial of "Light," London, July 
8th, 1899- 



PUBLICATIONS OF THE VEDANTA SOCIETY 



LECTURES BY SWAMI VTVEKANANDA: 

THE IDEAL OF A UNIVERSAL RELIGION. 

THE COSMOS. 

THE ATMAN. 

THE REAL AND APPARENT MAN. 

BHAKTI YOGA. 

WORLD S FAIR ADDRESSES, 10 cents each ; 1 cent each for postage. 



THE VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY.— An Address before the Graduate Philosophic* 
Society of Harvard College ; with introduction by Prof C. C. Everett. 1 5 cents ; 
2 cents for postage. 



KARMA YOGA (8 lectures), bound, 50 cents ; 5 cents postage. 

RAJA YOGA, new edition, 376 pages, bound, $1.50 ; 11 cents postage. 



LECTURES BY SWAMI ABHEDANANDA: 

THE ♦MOTHERHOOD OF GOD, 

SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF RELIGION. 

THE RELATION OF SOUL TO GOD. 

COSMIC EVOLUTION AND ITS PURPOSE. 

THE PHILOSOPHY OF GOOD AND EVIL. 

THE WAY TO THE BLESSED LIFE. 

WHY A HINDU IS A VEGETARIAN. 

THE WORD AND THE CROSS IN ANCIENT INDIA. 

DOES THE SOUL EXIST AFTER DEATH? 10 cents each; 1 cent each 

for postage. 
REINCARNATION (3 lectures), 25 cents. 

Other lectures by Svvami Abhedananda will be published during- the season of 
1900- 1901. 



PERIODICALS 

AWAKENED INDIA, monthly, $L00 a year ; Single copy JO cents. 
THE BRAHMA VADIN, monthly, $2*00 a year; Single copy 25 cents. 

These magazines are published in India, and contain articles and lectures by 
the Swamis. 

Orders received and filled promptly by the 

PUBLICATION COMMITTEE 

OF THE VEDANTA SOCIETY. 



The Word and tm Cross in Ancient India 

A LECTURE BY 

SWAMI ABHEDANANDA 

PRICE JO CENTS 

In this lecture Swami Abhedananda explains the origin of 
the idea of the " Word" or the Greek " Logos," which is de- 
scribed in the Fourth Gospel as the Son of God. Moreover, 
he shows how the Cross became a religious symbol amongst 
the Hindus in India many centuries before the birth of 
Christ. 



REINCARNATION (3 lectures), 25 cents. 

I. Reincarnation. 
II. Evolution and Reincarnation. 
III. Which is Scientific, Resurrection or Reincarnation? 

" In these discourses the Swami Abhedananda considers 
the questions of evolution and the resurrection in their bear- 
ing upon the ancient teaching of rebirth, the truth, logic and 
justice of which are rapidly permeating the best thought 
of the Western world. For the preservation of this doctrine 
mankind is indebted to the literary storehouses of India, 
the racial and geographical source of much of the vital 
knowledge of Occidental peoples. Reincarnation is shown 
in the present volume to be a universal solvent of life's 
mysteries. It answers those questions of children that have 
staggered the wisest minds who seek to reconcile the law of 
evolution and the existence of an intelligent and just Creator, 
with the proposition that man has but a single lifetime in 
which to develop spiritual self-consciousness. It is com- 
mended to every thinker." — Mind, February, 1900. 



-J> 



33 




•' If the slayer think that he has slain, or if the slain think that he is slain, 
both of them know not that the soul can neither slay nor be slain. 1 '— Katha 
Upanishad) ii. 19. 



DOES THE SOUL EXIST AFTER DEATH? 

One of the most poetical of the Upanishads, I 
mean the Katha Upanishad, which has been trans- 
lated by Sir Edwin Arnold, under the title of " The 
Secret of Death/' begins with this inquiry: "There 
is this doubt; when a man dies, some say that he is 
gone forever, that he does not exist, while others hold 
that he still lives; which of these is true?" Various 
answers have been given to this question; metaphysics, 
philosophy, science and religion have tried to solve 
this problem. At the same time, attempts have also 
been made to suppress this question and to prevent 
inquiry as to whether or not man exists after death. 
Hundreds of thinkers have brought forward all sorts 
of arguments to do away with questions bearing upon 
this momentous subject. 

From ancient times there have been atheistic and 
agnostic thinkers in India who denied the existence 
of the soul after the death of the body. They are 
known as Charvakas. They believe that the body is 
the soul, and that the soul does not exist outside of the 
body, and that when the body dies, th^ soul is also 



LC Control Number 




tmp96 027084 



2 VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY. 

dead and gone. They believe in nothing that cannot 
be perceived by the senses. Their motto is : " As long 
as you live, do not fail to enjoy. Live comfortably 
and enjoy the pleasures of life. Do not think of the 
future. Get all that you need and wish; if you have 
not got money, then beg or borrow it, for when the 
body is burned into ashes no one will have to be ac- 
countable for your deeds." 

Such Charvakas we find in almost every country. 
For instance, in the Old Testament we read, Solomon 
says: " Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink 

thy wine with a merry heart Live joyfully with 

the wife whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it 

with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor 
knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou 
goest." Eccl. ix. 7, 9, 10. The followers of such think- 
ers are spreading very rapidly and their number is in- 
creasing every day. They are now known as atheists, 
agnostics, materialists, etc. According to this class of 
thinkers, those who believe in the existence of the 
soul as separate from the body, or in a life after death 
are ignorant and superstitious fools, while those who 
follow their ideas are clever and intelligent beings. 
Most of them hold that there is no such thing as soul. 
No argument can convince them or change their views, 
because they will not admit the existence of anything 
which lies beyond the reach of their senses, or which 
cannot be perceived by the limited powers of the 
senses. They have written volumes after volumes 
against the existence of the soul, and have tried to 
stop such useless questions of the mind; but in spite 



DOES THE SOUL EXIST AFTER DEATH ? 3 

of their efforts, have they succeeded in stopping that 
innate question, "What remains after death?" — which 
rises spontaneously in almost every human heart? No. 
The same question rises to-day as it arose thousands 
of years ago. No one can stop it, because it is in- 
separably connected with our nature. 

The same question was asked by saints and sinners, 
by prophets and priests, by kings and beggars amongst 
all nations, in all climes. We are discussing the same 
question to-day; and it will be discussed in the future. 
We may forget it for the time being in the turmoil 
and struggles of our lives; we may not ask it when 
we are deeply absorbed in comforts, luxuries and sense 
enjoyments; we may delude ourselves by various false 
argumentations; but the moment we encounter the 
sudden appearance of death, the moment we see that 
some one of our nearest and dearest is breathing his 
last, we stop for a while and ask within ourselves: 
What is this? Where has he gone? Does he still 
exist? What has become of him? That dormant 
question reappears in a new form and disturbs our 
peace of mind. Then we begin to inquire; but at the 
very threshold of our inquiry we find an adamantine 
wall which it is almost impossible to break through. 
Weak intellects stop there; their feeble attempts to 
cross that wall produce no result. That wall is noth- 
ing but the belief that the body is the producer of the 
soul, that the soul is the result of the physical form we 
call the " body." Those who can overcome this strong 
barrier can understand whether or not the soul exists 
after death. The old, crude way of inferring the exist- 



4 VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY. 

ence of soul after death and a future life for all men, 
women and children from the tradition of a single 
miraculous resurrection of a certain person, no longer 
appeals to our reason. The days of believing blindly 
in the authority of any one's sayings are gone by. We 
are no longer children; we want maturer reason; we 
want to discuss that question more deeply. Those who 
believe in that xniraculous resurrection will perhaps 
say that those who do not believe in it have no hope. 
But we no longer accept their statements. The time 
has come when we want to discuss the question scien- 
tifically, psychologically, philosophically, metaphysic- 
ally, and in all other possible ways. 

Now let us see whether the explanation that body 
is the cause of the soul is satisfactory or not. Taking 
it for granted that the soul, or the mass of thought, or 
whatever you may call it, is the outcome of the com- 
binations of matter which make up the body, we ask, 
What is the cause of that body? What force combines 
the matter into the form of the body? What force is 
there which forms your body in one way and my body 
in another? What is the cause of those distinctions? 
The materialistic Charvakas will answer that this 
body was caused by another body of the parents. As 
the parents produce this body so the body of the par- 
ents is the cause of this body. But that is not the 
true answer, for instead of explaining the cause of this 
body and this combination of matter they show us an- 
other combination of matter, and the question remains 
the same. What is the cause of that combination of 
matter, — the parents' body? They answer, another 



DOES THE SOUL EXIST AFTER DEATH ? 5 

combination of matter, — and so on. Instead of an- 
swering the question and explaining the cause of the 
combination of matter they say that this combination 
is the result of another combination, which ultimately 
leads to the fallacy of regressus ad infinitum. The 
method of explaining the soul by the body is like the 
process of explaining the cause by the effect, which 
is putting the cart before the horse. 

Modern physiologists, anatomists, pathologists, and 
a host of other materialistic and agnostic thinkers, 
however, hold that body, or the combination of mat- 
ter, produces thought, intelligence, consciousness, 
mind or soul. In medical schools and college labora- 
tories students are taught that thought, or intelli- 
gence, or consciousness, is nothing but a function of 
the brain. Moreover, they learn that every special 
form of thought is a result of the activity of a special 
portion of the brain. When we see things, or think 
of seen objects, the optical convolutions of our brain 
are active. A certain portion of the temporal lobes 
are active when we hear, and so on. 

Those of the modern scientists who advocate the 
production of thought by brain say that " mind is 
conterminous with brain functions/' If the brain func- 
tions stop, the mind, intelligence, consciousness, and 
all the mental phenomena will instantly stop. The 
phenomena of consciousness correspond, element for 
element, to the operations of special parts of the brain. 
There is no such thing as soul; consequently there can 
be no question regarding its existence after death. 
They deny the existence of the soul altogether. The 



6 VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY. 

sensations decay when the organic conditions change 
and stop when the machinery stops. The brain brings 
into existence the material of consciousness of which 
our minds consist. Some explain the process by 
which thought is produced by the brain, by saying that 
the peculiar structure of the brain is destined to pro- 
duce thought and consciousness just as the stomach 
is destined to perform the function of digestion and 
the liver to secrete bile. As food materials, after fall- 
ing into the stomach, change and assume new qualities, 
so the impressions of the brain through the nerves are 
metamorphosed into ideas, thought, emotion, will, 
expressions of the face, speech, disposition, etc. Thus 
thought or soul is the secretion of the brain; when 
the brain is gone, soul cannot exist. Here impressions 
are compared to food as if the impressions were gross 
forms of matter or as if they could exist apart from a 
perceiving mind. Buchner, one of the most famous 
materialists, says : " Thinking must be regarded as a 
special mode of general natural motion." J. Luys 
says : " As one sees a metallic rod, placed in a glow- 
ing furnace, gradually heat itself and pass successively 
from the shades of bright red to dark red, to white and 
develop, as its temperature rises, heat and light, — so 
the living sensitive cells, in presence of the incitations 
that solicit them, exalt themselves progressively as to 
their most interior sensibility." 

Mr. Percival Lowell says : " When we have, as we 
say, an idea, what happens inside of us is probably 
like this : the neural current of molecular change passes 
up the nerves, and through the ganglia reaches at last 



DOES THE SOUL EXIST AFTER DEATH ? J 

the cortical cells. . . .When it reaches the cortical cells 
it finds a set of molecules which are not so accustomed 
to this special change. The current encounters resist- 
ance, and in overcoming this resistance it causes the 
cells to glow. This white-heating of the cells we call 
consciousness. Consciousness, in short, is probably 
nerve-grow." Thus the western materialists who be- 
lieve that the physical forces are metamorphosed into 
ideas, thoughts and sensations describe the process by 
w T hich this change takes place. Mr. Herbert Spencer, 
being an agnostic, advocates the metamorphosis of the 
physical forces into states of consciousness but he 
does not describe the process. He leaves it as a mys- 
tery which it is impossible to fathom. That is, he does 
not know how this metamorphosis takes place, but he 
is sure it does take place. Mr. Spencer, however, 
identifies the soul with the brain and compares it to 
the piano. He says : " Ideas are like the successive 
chords and cadences brought out, which successively 
die as the other ones are sounded, and it would be as 
proper to say that these passing chords and cadences 
thereafter exist in the piano as it is proper to say that 
passing ideas thereafter exist in the brain " (soul). 
.... Principles of Psychology, VII., p. 485. But here 
Mr. Spencer forgets that the piano needs a performer 
to produce musical sounds. Music is never brought 
out by the piano itself if it does not exist in the mind 
of the performer. So his analogy is imperfect and in- 
complete. It would have been complete if he supposed 
that the individual soul or mind is detached from the 



8 VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY. 

brain and plays upon its nervous centres and brain 
cells as a performer plays upon the keys of a piano. 

Another materialistic thinker, Professor W. K. Clif- 
ford, who believes in the combination theory, says: 
" Consciousness is a complex thing made up of ele- 
ments, a stream of feelings. The action of the brain 
is also a complex thing made up of elements, a stream 
of nerve messages. For every feeling in consciousness 
there is at the same time a nerve message of the brain. 
Consciousness is not a simple thing, but complex; it 
is the combination of feelings into a stream. Inexor- 
able facts connect our consciousness with this body 
that we know; and that not merely as a whole, but the 
parts of it are connected severally with parts of our 
brain action. If there is any similar connection with 
a spiritual body it only follows that the spiritual body 
must die at the same time with the natural one/' Thus 
the materialistic thinkers, who do not believe in a soul 
as separate from the brain, or independent of the 
physical body, try to deduce mind and intelligence 
from matter, or from the combinations of matter, either 
by applying the theory of production, or the theory of 
combination. 

In India similar theories were advanced by the 
Charvakas and the Buddhists, who did not believe in the 
existence of a soul as separate from the gross body. 
The Buddhists maintained that the body is the cause 
of mind and intelligence, that consciousness is the 
result of the combination of insentient matter and un- 
intelligent forces of physical nature. They used the 
illustration of a lamp and the light. This body is just 



DOES THE SOUL EXIST AFTER DEATH ? 9 

like a lamp, and the intelligence, or consciousness, is 
like the light produced by the burning of the candle. 

But Vedanta philosophers refuted both these mate- 
rialistic theories by pointing out the fallacy of their 
principal arguments. Vedanta says that matter or ob- 
ject is only one half of the universe, and the other half 
is mind, or subject, or soul. It is impossible to deduce 
the one from the other. In the first place if we analyze 
our knowledge of matter and force, we find that we 
cannot know matter by itself and we cannot know 
force by itself; that what we know is nothing but a 
mental change. Knowledge of matter is nothing but 
the knowledge of that change of mind of which we are 
conscious. When we say that matter exists we are 
conscious of a peculiar mental change beyond which 
we cannot know. The mind cannot go beyond itself. 
Even our knowledge that the soul or mind is a func- 
tion of the brain presupposes the existence of another 
mind or knower. Whenever we say that consciousness 
or soul is the result of the combination of matter, that 
statement also requires another mind to be conscious 
of that idea. 

John Stuart Mill was right in saying that after dis- 
secting a human brain, when one does not find there 
any trace of the soul or mind, and denies its existence, 
or asserts that mind or soul is the function of the brain, 
he forgets that such knowledge necessarily implies the 
existence of his mind or soul. As the knowledge of 
matter, or brain, or any other kind of knowledge de- 
pends upon the self-consciousness, it will be absurd 
to deny the priority of that which is the basis of con- 



IO VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY. 

sciousness, of intelligence, and of all knowledge, and 
with the help of which one can know the existence of 
matter, or its combinations. G. J. Romanes says: 
" We cannot think any of the facts of external nature 
without presupposing the existence of a mind which 
thinks them, and therefore, so far at least as we are 
concerned, mind is necessarily prior to everything else. 
It is for us the only mode of existence which is real in 
its own right, and to it, as to a standard, all other 
modes of existence which may be inferred must be re- 
ferred. Therefore, if we say that mind is a function of 
motion, we are only saying, in somewhat confused ter- 
minology, that mind is a function of itself. Such, then, 
I take to be a general refutation of materialism."* If 
it be a scientific truth that motion produces nothing 
but motion, as it has been established by modern sci- 
ence, how can we maintain that the molecular motion 
of the brain cells produces consciousness, or intelli- 
gence, which is not the same as motion, but is a 
knower of motion? Therefore, Vedanta philosophy 
teaches that the source of consciousness cannot be 
found in matter, but stands independent of it. What 
we call matter is only the medium through which con- 
sciousness manifests itself. 

Dr. Schiller, an eminent thinker of the West, hold- 
ing similar opinions, says: " Matter is not that which 
produces consciousness, but that which limits it, and 
confines its intensity within certain limits; material 
organization does not construct consciousness out of 
arrangements of atoms, but contracts its manifesta- 

* "Mind and Motion and Monism," p. 21. 



DOES THE SOUL EXIST AFTER DEATH? II 

tion within the sphere which it permits." There are 
other agnostic thinkers who say: " The conception 
of a soul as a substantive thing is a mere figment of 
imagination." Kant said: " There is no means what- 
ever by which we can learn anything respecting the 
constitution of the soul so far as regards the possibility 
of its separate existence." 

David Hume, like some of the Buddhistic philoso- 
phers in India, believed that the human soul is nothing 
but a bundle of impressions and ideas. Hume said: 
" When I enter most intimately into what I call myself, 
I always stumble on some particular perception or 
other of heat or cold, light or shade, love or 
hatred, pain or pleasure. When my perceptions 
are removed for any time, as by sound sleep, 
so long I am insensible of myself and may be truly 
said not to exist. And were all my perceptions re- 
moved by death and I could neither think, nor feel, 
nor see, nor love, nor hate, after the dissolution of my 
body, I should be entirely annihilated; nor do I con- 
ceive what is further requisite to make me a perfect 
nonentity." So, according to Hume, our souls die 
every night when we sleep soundly. I think very few 
of us here present will be ready to accept such an 
explanation of the nature of the human soul. 

Those who depend on sense perceptions only, try 
to see the soul by dissecting the brain, but when the 
senses do not reveal it, they deny its existence. They 
may just as well try to find the soul in the heart or 
stomach, as the ancient seekers of the soul did. If we 
examine properly, we shall be able to see logical falla- 

LefC. 



12 VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY. 

cies and inconsistencies in all the materialistic and 
agnostic arguments which support the theory that soul 
is the result of body or of the combination of matter, 
or else that the soul does not exist at all. From an- 
cient times such materialistic conclusions have been 
repeatedly arrived at by thinkers of different countries. 
But do our minds remain satisfied with such ideas, and 
do we stop from asking again and again — is there any 
life after death? If we hear millions of times "there 
is no soul/' still we cannot be entirely convinced that 
we shall cease to exist after death; we cannot think 
of our annihilation; we cannot believe that our indi- 
viduality will be lost forever. Such solutions do not 
appeal to our reason; they do not satisfy our minds, 
nor do they bring any consolation to our souls. These 
statements are but the expressions of ignorance of 
truth. Truth is that which exists eternally. If exist- 
ence be a truth to-day, it must be true eternally. 

If we deny the existence of a soul as independent 
of the body, we cannot explain many facts which often 
occur during our lifetime, nor the genuine phenomena 
described in the reports of the Psychical Research 
Society of Europe and America. We cannot ignore 
the facts recorded in the lives of many cultivated scep- 
tics and agnostics who have seen their doubles out- 
side of themselves when alone in their rooms reposing 
on a couch or an easy chair. There are instances of 
such doubles talking, walking or doing various other 
things. How are these facts to be explained? There 
are many descriptions of the manifestation of the dou- 
bles of the Yogis in India. Various attempts have 



DOES THE SOUL EXIST AFTER DEATH ? 13 

been made to explain such events by asserting that 
they are either optical delusions or hallucinations of 
the brain. But we cannot say they are optical delu- 
sions or hallucinations if they can stand the test of 
verification. There are many properly verified in- 
stances of the appearance of the double. Suppose at 
night before retiring one is sitting alone in his room, 
after locking the door from inside. Suppose his mind 
is greatly disturbed with some important business 
question or a mathematical problem. He suddenly 
sees another exactly like himself sitting at his desk 
with a pen in his hand, writing something on a piece of 
paper; and, after examination, he finds that it is an 
answer to his question or the correct solution of the 
problem which has puzzled him for many days, what 
explanation will you offer? What kind of hallucina- 
tion is this? What verification stronger and more sat- 
isfactory than this do you want to have? Such an 
occurrence cannot be explained by clairvoyance or 
telepathy. Some may say it is a false story, but mere 
assertion does not disprove the facts. The denial of a 
fact does not change the nature of the fact. Facts are 
facts whether we admit or deny them, whether our 
current theory can explain them or not. Clairvoyance, 
telepathy, and thought transference have failed to ex- 
plain these cases. Such facts can only be explained by 
the theory of the existence of the soul as separable 
from the body. According to science, that theory is 
true which can explain most facts, and we should ac- 
cept it until a better theory or a better explanation 
comes. Those who believe in the theory of produc- 



14 VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY. 

tion, or that of combination, will shut their eyes to 
such facts. But those who believe in the transmission 
theory, or, in other words, those who hold that brain 
or human body is the instrument through which the 
soul manifests its powers, will find no difficulty in ex- 
plaining all the genuine phenomena connected with 
the double. 

Prof. William James, of Harvard, says : " The trans- 
mission theory also puts itself in touch with a whole 
class of experiences that are with difficulty explained 
by the production theory." 

Again there are authentic instances of persons ap- 
pearing to friends immediately after death. There are 
many such instances in India, in Europe, and in every 
country. Such instances may occur where the persons 
appearing to friends ask to have their children taken 
care of, or bring some message. One need not go to 
spiritualistic seances to experience these things. Many 
such experiences have come to persons in private life 
and in their own homes; and they have been well 
verified. 

In spiritualistic seances, ninety-nine cases out of one 
hundred of spirit manifestations are mixed with fraud, 
and many professional mediums have been most piti- 
fully exposed both here and abroad. The motive power 
in professional mediums is to make money, or to earn 
a living. 

In India the Hindus do not trust a professional 
medium. On the contrary, they say it is wicked to 
hold public seances for money. It is more wicked to 
earn a living at the expense of the poor spirits. Why 



DOES THE SOUL EXIST AFTER DEATH ? 15 

try to earn your living by making the poor spirits ap- 
pear to you? Those persons who do this are consid- 
ered ordinary fakirs. Although many mediums have 
been exposed, and many spirit manifestations have 
been proved to be like magic or jugglery, still those 
fraudulent cases cannot be the reason for denying the 
existence of the soul as apart from the body or in a life 
after death. Now, the question may arise : If the soul 
exists after death, does it retain its individuality? The 
Vedanta philosophy says, yes, it does. The souls of 
earthbound spirits retain their personality, too. Some 
of the western writers, who have known very little of 
Hindu philosophy, say that the highest ideal of the 
Hindu religion is the annihilation of the soul. These 
childish statements prove their ignorance and preju- 
dice. We hear such things from writers who consider 
themselves great scholars after reading the description 
of Hindu religion given by the Christian missionaries, 
who do not see good in any religion except their own, 
or who write simply to serve their own purposes. In 
the voluminous writings of the Hindus, however, you 
will never find a single sentence which teaches that the 
soul will be destroyed after death. On the contrary, 
you will read that the soul is eternal, immortal, death- 
less and birthless. In the Bhagavad Gita it is said: 
"The soul of man is indestructible; it cannot be 
pierced by the sword; fire cannot burn it; air cannot 
dry it ; water cannot moisten it." 

" If the slayer think that he has slain, or if the slain 
think that he is slain, both of them know not that the 
soul can neither slay nor be slain." 



l6 VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson, after reading the Bhagavad 
Gita, rendered this passage in verse in his poem en- 
titled " Brahma " : 

" If the red slayer think he slays, 
Or if the slain think he is slain, 
They know not well the subtle ways 
I keep, and pass, and turn again." 

As regards the retaining of the individuality, Ve- 
danta says that each soul after death takes with it all 
the experiences, impressions, and ideas which it gained 
on earth; it takes its mind, its intelligence, its intel- 
lect and powers of the senses and enjoys, or reaps, the 
fruits of its own thoughts and deeds. 

If you read the funeral service of the Hindus you 
will find that after the death of a person the relatives do 
good deeds in the name of the departed, believing that 
good thoughts, prayers and good works, done in their 
names, will help the departed spirits. The Hindus also 
believe that, if we think of them constantly and invoke 
them, asking them to remain with us for our own 
gratification without thought of their good, we force 
them to remain confined to that particular personality 
which was connected with their earthly bodies they left 
behind them. Personality is always connected with 
the body. 

At every birth of the body we have a certain person- 
ality according to the environments, and if we keep 
one soul confined in one personality or one set of en- 
vironments, then there will be no progress of the soul 



DOES THE SOUL EXIST AFTER DEATH ? If 

on higher planes. Therefore, it is better not to drag 
our departed friends to our plane of existence; but 
to help them by sending good thoughts to them. 

The most ancient writers of the Vedic ages show 
that they believed in the spirit world of the Pitars, or 
fathers, where the departed souls go after death. The 
king, or ruler, of this place is called Yama. He was 
the first of the mortals to enter that world and he be- 
came the ruler of those who came later. 

The Hindus believe in a heaven, but not in any 
hell. The Hindu heaven is different from that of the 
Christian or of the Mohammedan. The Hindus be- 
lieve that heaven is a realm where the departed souls 
go to reap the pleasant effects of their good and vir- 
tuous actions, that they remain there for some 
time — that is, until the results of their good works are 
completely reaped; then after that period, they will 
return to this world again. The Christians, Moham- 
medans, and Zoroastrians believe in a heaven of all 
kinds of sense enjoyments, where pleasures will come 
incessantly without troubles or any sort of pain. This, 
according to the Hindus, is not a desirable state. They 
say that all these celestial enjoyments are phenomenal 
and transitory. Supposing a spirit remains in heaven 
and enjoys for a million years or for one cycle; still, 
compared to eternity, this is a very short time. So 
they say, that after enjoying the results of good works 
in those realms, one is bound to be born again, either 
here or in some other planet, according to one's ten- 
dencies and capacities. Therefore, in the Bhagavad 
Gita it is said: "All the different worlds of spirits, 



l8 VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY. 

beginning with the highest heavens, are states from 
where one must return, because they are within the 
realm of phenomena and are changeable. But he who 
attains to the realization of Truth transcends all phe- 
nomena and the laws which govern them." 

The Persians believed that the soul would rise three 
days after death and would go either to heaven or to 
hell, according to its thoughts, speech and works. This 
Persian idea of heaven was afterwards adopted by the 
Jews and the Christians. The ancient Hebrews did 
not trouble themselves about the life after death. 
They believed that God breathed life into man's nos- 
trils and that the breath, which came from Jehovah, 
would go back to Him; that the life breath of all 
creatures would return to the source from whence it 
came. " That which happens to man also happens to 
lower animals." This life breath was sometimes called 
" Nephesh," " Ruach," or " Neshama." 

The Egyptians believed in a double which was like 
a shadow of the body, and which remained as long as 
the body remained. This gave rise to the idea of mum- 
mifying the bodies of the dead. If the body was in- 
jured in any part, the double, or soul, was likewise 
injured; so to keep the soul intact they preserved the 
bodies. 

The Chaldeans believed in a double which would 
be annihilated if the body were destroyed. They ex- 
pected a resurrection of the corpse. Many of the 
Christians have a similar belief. This idea gave rise 
to the custom of embalming and burying the dead. 
Some of the Christians still believe that the body will 



DOES THE SOUL EXIST AFTER DEATH ? 19 

rise after death. Others do not believe in the resur- 
rection of the body. They believe that the soul 
will remain and exist through all eternity, although 
it had a beginning. The Christian idea regarding 
the beginning of the soul is that at the time of 
birth, each soul is newly created by the Almighty God. 
But the Hindus say that that which has a beginning 
cannot live through all eternity; it must have an 
end. The Hindus do not believe that the soul is 
created by God or by any other being. It is eternal 
by its nature. It is birthless and it cannot die. The 
Hindus do not mean destruction or annihilation by 
death; they mean by it a change of body or form. 
This kind of death is a constant attendant of life. 
Phenomenal life is impossible without death or change 
of forms. We are dying every day. Every seventh 
year the entire body has changed every particle and 
renewed every atom. 

Prof. Huxley says: " Physiology writes over the 
portals of life, Debemur morti nos nostraque, with a pro- 
founder meaning than the Roman poet ascribed to the 
melancholy line. And in whatever guise it takes 
refuge, whether fungus or oak, worm or man, the 
living protoplasm not only ultimately dies and is re- 
solved into its mineral and lifeless constituents, but is 
always dying, and, strange as the paradox may 
sound, could not live unless it died." Although every 
particle of the body changes, we still continue to exist; 
our continuity is not broken. From babyhood to old 
age we retain the same sense of " I " and of personal 
identity. This continuity of the conscious agent, or 



OCT 19 1900 

20 VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY. 

" I," cannot be explained by any physical or chem- 
ical law. According to Vedanta philosophy, thought, 
or feeling, or intelligence can never be produced by 
any mechanical or molecular motion. " Motion pro- 
duces motion and nothing else," says modern science. 
As such, how can the motion of the atoms of the body 
produce consciousness? That must be due to some 
higher power, or force. This force is ordinarily called 
' soul." The soul is not subject to the atomic or molec- 
ular changes in the body; it is rather the cause of them. 
It is beyond all change, and consequently, beyond 
death. It is the basis of the continuity of the conscious 
state and of the sense of identity in the individual. As 
we survive and retain our individuality after each seven 
years of change and renewal, so we shall live as indi- 
vidual souls after the final dissolution of the form of 
our bodies. In the Bhagavad Gita it is said : " As 
during our lifetime we survive the death of the baby 
body, the young body, and the mature body, suc- 
cessively, and retain our individuality, so after the 
death of the old body we shall survive, live, retain our 
individuality and continue to exist through eternity." 

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